Running to the Enemy
by Salamander miraculous dragneel
Summary: 10 years ago, Layla ran away with her daughter, Lucy, to escape her abusive husband. 10 years on, and Lucy has had enough of her mother's over protectiveness. Storming out her mums flat, she takes to the streets to find a father she doesn't remember. Along the way, she picks up some much needed street smarts, and who better to show her the dangers of the streets, than Natsu.


A girl with long blond hair and chocolate eyes balanced on a ledge overlooking a river. Nobody paid any attention to her, used to her ways. Nothing was amis and all was picturesque. The sun rose at 6, and would set at 6. The weather would be neither too hot or too cold, at a comfortable 18, life in Magnolia was perfect.

Or was it?

Paying closer attention to the blonde, one might notice the glazed over look to her eyes, and the slightly discolored tear tracks that stained her cheeks. Failing that, they might notice the way she didn't use her arms to balance herself, instead, curling them in around her body, protecting and shielding herself from seemingly nothing.

But like always, nobody paid any attention. Nobody cared.

Early morning shoppers, content to keep to themselves, hurried along the cobblestone High Street. Despite being an old town, no cracks or grassy tufts ruined the paving. Each stone fitted perfectly into place, content to remain where placed all those years ago.

As if some simultaneous bell had rung, shop doors banged, creaked, rung, and squeaked open, up and down the highstreet. Starting from the left, ending at the right. Closed signs flipped over in cannon. The scene was to practiced, too rehearsed to appear natural.

However, the barely balancing blonde no longer noticed. She was used to the machanical ways in which the townspeople interacted with their surroundings, and it was safe to say she no longer cared.

This blondes name was Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia. Yeah you heard that right. Heartfilia. One of the oldest and richest named to have graced this world with their esteemed presence. Now your probably wondering what the sheltered daughter of the richest of the rich, is doing balancing on a ledge, in a mechanical town, in a broken kingdom called Fiore. To understand that, you need to know the back story:

 _ **10 years previous~ The Heartfilia Estate**_

 _"Daddy?" A seven year old Lucy knocked on the door of her father's study. Feeling intimidated by the sheer size of the door, much less the knocker. "Daddy?" Lucy paused, listening out for the rhythmic tapping of his work shoes. Two pairs of feet approached the door, the accompanying bodies casting disfigured shadows to stretch under the door. Lucy shivered._

 _The footsteps paused._ _Suddenly, a figure launched at Lucy from behind. After seconds of brief resistance, Lucy relaxed, feeling the frail arms of her mother encircling her own seven year old body. "Mama?"_ _"Shhhhh, s'okay baby, mama's got you"._

 _Layla Hearfilia, stunning astrophysicist, Doctorate degree, rich, and to top it all off, married to one of Fiore's most dangerous Criminal Masterminds. Jude Heartfilia._ _Now typically, when one refers to someone as a criminal mastermind, they mean, evil, soulless, manipulative, and abusive, right? No. No. Yes. No. Jude was the outlier, the anomaly, if you will. His mission began how most do, with noble intentions._

 _Jude believed that instead of fighting the bad guys, if one was able to control them, then the gangs wouldn't be able to act without his go ahead. From this, he decided that if he was to essentially 'lead' the criminals and the insane, he would be able to limit the amount of civilian, and wrong place, wrong time casualties._ _So he began, at the bottom. Painfully and slowly began clawing his way up the ladder. But you don't become the most feared and powerful man in a country by saying please and thank you. Jude more often than not, found himself cleaning up someone else's messes, providing alabi's and on occasion, killing a person or two._ _Now your all probably wondering how the beautiful, clever and esteemed Layla came to marry someone like Jude. Well she was blinded by his seemingly noble intentions. His lies wooed her, and his grace and looks encased her. Trapping her in a web of deceit and manipulation. Jude was a kind and considerate man once, but he had been corrupted by those he tried to purify._

 _After knowing each other for only 3 months, she had agreed to marry him. His haste caused no doubts in Layla's mind, and she soon fell pregnant. With a son. A son, in time, she came to hate._ _Still blinded by lies, Layla fell pregnant again, this time with her beautiful daughter, Lucy._ _The daughter Layla Now strived to protect from the cruel reality of her husbands 'career' choices._

 _The footsteps resumed, a slow, predatory stalk. Layla grabbed Lucy and fled the estate, before Jude could do to Lucy what he had done her._


End file.
